New autumn plant, bulb and shrub range now online

Now that summer is well and truly on its way and plants are putting on some decent growth at last, it’s a good time to start thinking about next season.

Our autumn plant, bulb and shrub range is now online and is the perfect planning tool; it’s full of plant ideas to help keep your garden looking lovely well past the summer months, into autumn and on into winter.

Ordering plants now means that you won’t miss out on these exciting new varieties and they’ll be delivered just at the right time for planting.

There’s so much choice – whether your’e a fan of unusual shrubs or a lover of colourful spring bulbs, you’ll find plenty to tempt you. Look out for new and interesting varieties that can’t always be found in garden centres and nurseries and don’t forget that whatever you buy is backed up by our 100% satisfaction guarantee.

All our products are trialled and tested, both by us and our team of customer triallists, to ensure great performance. We currently have 65 members in the trial panel who grow a selection of our plants in their own gardens up and down the country. They report back to us on what they’ve achieved and we take their feedback into consideration when deciding which plants to offer to our customers.

Perfect for small gardens, this compact tree will rival any flowering cherry for spring colour. In spring it’s smothered in delightful purple blossom and goes on flowering for a long period. The ruby red glow of the summer leaves ages to a vibrant orange by autumn. Cercis ‘Forest Pansy’ can grow to 3m (10ft) in height and needs no pruning, except to remove damaged or poorly placed branches in the winter. However, in smaller gardens it can be grown as a shrub and, once established, pruned back to 60-90cm from the ground in late winter or early spring.

A variation on the popular garden centre photinia ‘Red Robin’, the new ‘Pink Marble’ has the same eye-catching red foliage, but has speckled pink leaves too. Photinia ‘Pink Marble’ is very easy to grow and will thrive in most soils and positions. This low-maintenance plant grows to 2.5m (8ft) and is impressive as a stand-alone plant, but also makes a great hard-wearing, low-growing hedge. To maintain it as a hedge, we recommed trimming the plants up to 3 times a year, from late spring through to mid-August.

The low-growing abelia ‘Kaleidoscope’ plants burst into a riot of colour almost from the minute you plant them up! Excellent ground cover, they’ll quickly knit together to stop weeds in their tracks. The attractive 3-coloured foliage changes from lime-green to fiery orange and red and is complemented by white fragrant blooms from July to October. The compact, dense habit make it perfect for borders and patio containers. Plant abelia ‘Kaleidoscope’ in any well-drained, ferile soil in full sun for best results. Deadheading prolongs the flowering season and, if you live in area where winters are severe, adding a deep bark mulch around the base of the plants in autumn will protect the roots.

Tulip bulbs are really easy to grow and make a real statement, whether you plant them in borders or in patio containers. We’ve introduced some new tulips to our autumn range, including ‘Moulin Rouge’, the most fragrant tulip we’ve ever found! Snap these beauties up while you can – there aren’t many scented tulips in the flower world and you won’t want to miss out on the sweet, brown sugar fragrance of ‘Moulin Rouge’. There’s also the fabulous ‘Starline’ with its red and white bicolour blooms and not forgetting ‘Pop up Yellow’, which initially grows like any other tulip, then the middle part ‘pops up’, making it look like an exotic bird!

Yes, it really is a honeysuckle! ‘Firecracker’, unlike many other hardy honeysuckles, is not prone to mildew. The unusual collared flower heads and amazing fragrance are a real talking point and make honeysuckle ‘Firecracker’ a must-have for your borders. It flowers from September to October, grows to 2m (6.5ft) and thrives in a sunny spot.

Rebecca works in the Marketing department as part of the busy web team, focusing on updating the UK news and blog pages and Thompson & Morgan’s international website. Rebecca enjoys gardening and learning about flowers and growing vegetables with her young daughter.